Peter Rabbit

a character in several of Beatrix Potter’s stories for children, including her first, The Tale of Peter Rabbit. He is a young rabbit who often gets into trouble.

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▪ 1994

      In 1993 children of all ages celebrated the 100th birthday of the world's best-known and most beloved lagomorph. The guest of honour was not only long in the tooth, he was also long in the ears. Peter Rabbit, who began his public life in Edwardian times and retained his best-seller status in the postmodern era, proved to be a contemporary centenarian. A nontrendy vegetarian, the mischievous Peter tended to ignore his mother's warnings about making forbidden, potentially fatal forays into Mr. McGregor's garden to satisfy his yen for carrots and lettuce.

      Peter Rabbit was created on Sept. 4, 1893, in the pages of an illustrated letter written to a sick little boy by the British watercolourist and writer Beatrix Potter. "My dear Noel," she began, "I don't know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter." From that letter developed the small illustrated book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which Potter published privately in 1901, and which became the best-selling children's book on record. Twenty-three books and 80 million copies later, Potter's books had been translated into more than 20 languages. All the books contained Potter's watercolour illustrations, which captured the timeless, tranquil beauty of England's Lake District.

      Peter himself was quite possibly the world's oldest licensed character, with 2,000 new products adorned with his likeness produced every year. The merchandising of Peter Rabbit did not begin with greedy late 20th-century entrepreneurs, however; Potter herself guided the production of her books. She patented her own Peter Rabbit doll, invented a board game featuring him, and even attempted to market Peter Rabbit wallpaper designs.

      To what can Peter Rabbit's longevity be attributed? Certainly not to his costume, consisting of a little blue waistcoat with decidedly old-fashioned styling, or his bucolic and circumscribed world. Perhaps Potter's tales of Peter, couched in Edwardian sensibilities and morality, introduced young readers to the very real dangers lurking in the adult world and to actions whose consequences needed to be addressed. In Potter's animal kingdom, foxes sometimes got eaten and kittens nearly baked into puddings. Even Peter barely escaped Farmer McGregor's clutches and returned, frightened but a little wiser, to his mother's waiting, comforting embrace. And Mrs. Rabbit had at the ready a cup of chamomile tea for Peter; for his good little siblings, who never got into the scrapes that tempted Peter, she produced a supper of bread and milk and blackberries.

      In addition to books about Peter Rabbit, Potter, who died in Lancashire in 1943, wrote about many other animals, including Benjamin Bunny, Peter's cousin, and the Flopsy Bunnies, Peter's nieces and nephews. "The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends," a six-part animated series that used Potter's illustrations, was created in 1992 for television broadcast and home video.

      (NAOMI BERNARDS POLONSKY)

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